The present invention relates to a storage system for use in a computer system, and more particularly to techniques for managing faults in the storage system.
(1) Re: SAN (Storage Area Network)
In recent years, SAN has been increasingly pervasive. The SAN is a network which integrates storages, separated from server computers, into a storage system exclusively for storing data and delivering data stored therein, for use by the server computers from which the storages have been removed. The introduction of the SAN has contributed to the realization of high speed data transfers, high expendability and availability of storage systems, and effective utilization of storage resources.
(2) Re: SAN manager
For operating storage devices integrated in SAN without interruption, it is necessary to employ a human manager familiar with particular types of storage devices in their respective operations, causing a higher management cost. In the management of operations of storage devices, it is critical to monitor respective devices (server devices, virtualization switch devices, storage devices, and the like) connected to the SAN for their operating situations which are the basis for their daily operations. A software application for monitoring such operating situations will be hereinafter called the “manager program.” The manger program has two main functions: a configuration management function and a fault monitoring function for a storage system. With the configuration management function, the manager program periodically acquires information from management agents which reside in respective devices that form part of the SAN, detects a physical connection relationship (topology) of the SAN from the acquired information, and visualizes at all times the most recent topology which is provided to the human manager. With the fault monitoring function, the manager program detects events such as faults, degraded performance, and the like based on event notices issued by respective devices for notifying hardware faults, degraded performance, and the like, as well as on device information periodically acquired from the management agents resident in the respective devices, and notifies the human manager of the detected events. These two functions permit the user to uniformly manage the operating situations of particular devices using the manger program, and to reduce the operation cost through cutbacks of human mangers.
(3) Re: Mapping Technique between Databases and Storages:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,306 discloses a technique for analyzing the performance using a mapping technique between databases and storages. The mapping technique can be introduced into the SAN to analyze the performance of the databases or files on a one-by-one basis.
A database management system (hereinafter called the “DBMS”) employs a storage device capable of storing a large amount of data for building a database therein. The DBMS processing is required to ensure a high throughput and high reliability. By using a storage device for storing a database, high speed and reliable processing can be continuously executed. The DBMS called by a job unintentionally uses a plurality of physical disk units in the storage device. A virtualizer provides a plurality of logical disks as a single virtual volume. It is difficult for the DBMS to dominate the configuration of the storage devices including the virtualizer having a virtualization function, using the mapping technique, for managing the storage devices. Also, when a fault occurs in the storage system including the virtualizer, it is impossible to identify a particular job that is affected by the fault only with information on the fault about devices associated therewith. In the event of such a fault, a manual investigation is required. In addition, the human's intervention is also required for controlling the execution of a job affected by a fault, thereby resulting in a higher cost.